Need Help Making M725 M/B go 100Mhz FSB

[Juiceman]

I have a PCchips M725 Motherboard, It has 66 and 100 Mhz support via a jumper on the board. But whenever I change the jumper to 100 Mhz it won't boot. I have downloaded and installed a BIOS update from the site, but to no avail. I need help making this board use my PII400, the most I am getting from it is 266Mhz. ANY suggestions?

[Peter M]

Hi!

While the clock generator on the M725 can generate 100 MHz, the entire board is 66 MHz-only. (It uses an early revision of the ALi Aladdin Pro II chipset, incapable of doing 100 MHz stably).

Later the exact same board was renamed to M729 and then featured a revised chipset really 100 MHz capable.

So if you're really sure that you have an M725, then you're out of luck for 100 MHz.

Regards, Peter

[Juiceman]

My board has the ALi Chipset, so thats why I assume its the m725, is it possible that it's an m729? The pic I saw of the m729 has the PC100 BXcel chipset. Can I use the m729 BIOS update to flash my m/b BIOS?

[This message has been edited by Juiceman (edited 09-28-99).]

[Peter M]

Hi again,

Updating BIOS won't help. As I said before, the M725 uses an early revision of the ALi Aladdin Pro II chipset which doesn't work at 100 MHz.

The M729, while being identical in all other aspects, uses the same chipset, but a later revision, and works reliably at 100 MHz. "BXcel" is just an alias name that PC-Chips used.

www.pcchips.com/m725.html
www.pcchips.com/m729.html

Your upgrade path is to get the latest M725 BIOS from ftp.pcchips.com.tw/BIOS/M725 (once they are back online), and plug a Celeron in a "slocket" adapter. This takes you up to 500/66 MHz. (Never mind the board's documented multipliers - newer Intel processors bring their own hardwired setting and don't care about the mainboard's.)

Regards, Peter